Gospel Press installs Komori Lithrone G40, Kodak CTP

Rajiv Goyal, owner, Gospel Press, said, “I was searching for a four-colour printing press for mass production and the press fulfilled the requirement. Now, I have three 28x40-inch presses. I can print jobs on sheet sizes 20x30, 23x36 and 28x40-inches. The 28x40 format helps me pick most of the jobs from the market.”

Goyal added that with the new machine, the company’s makeready time has dropped by 66%. “Earlier. saleable prints used to come after 60 sheets and now it is only 10 sheets,” he said.

Goyal said he was planning to buy a young pre-owned machine, but the knowledge and technical sessions at Drupa pushed him towards a new one. “I found after the session that buying a new press is all about your mindset, nothing else. The technical and financial nitty-gritty can be managed,” he added.

Talking about learning, Goyal added, “Your intensions and customer profile should be clear. You must have working efficiency, output and honesty when can go for anything.”

Goyal started Gospel in 2006, following the advice of his brother Sunil Goel, owner of Noida-based Gopsons Papers. Meanwhile, the family continues to run its paper trading business. “I still invest 24 hours a week in the paper trading business with my father,” said Goyal.

About the Kodak Trendsetter 800, Goyal said that it was time the company had an in-house plate production facility to meet the demand of plates and quality. “With this, our dependency on pre-press bureaus has ended,” he said.

Gospel specialises in government, commercial and book publishing. “Right now, we entertain only paper, because board needs a different mindset and setup, which we do not have. We also believe that it is saturation point for us in all three segments. Maybe one or two years later, we will diversify into packaging printing, especially pharma packaging,” Goyal added.

On the Komori, the company is printing more than 2 lakh sheets in a 24-hour production shift. “We were converting around 125 tonnes of paper per month earlier. After the Komori was installed, it touched 250 tonnes per month. We are yet to use all the features of the machine, as we are using it only for printing so far,” Goyal said.

Total 70% of Gospel’s customers come from book publishing. The rest 30% are commercial. “We are now printing educational certifications and examination exercise notebooks. Now, we have ordered a web offset press from The Printers House to fulfill the requirement of examination exercise notebooks,” Goyal added.

The core team of Gospel includes Rajiv Sharma, responsible for production and maintenance; Umesh Dixit, responsible for commercial transactions; and Purnima Shrivastava, responsible for office backup. Total 45 people works at Gospel’s 2,500 sq/m built-up area.

“Our turnover for the current financial must be touching Rs 20 crore. We are working towards multifold growth in the coming years,” concluded Goyal.